Myanmar’s military rulers have released the personal doctor of jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who goes on trial today for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest, a family member of the doctor said.
Authorities accuse Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, of harboring a US man who swam secretly across a lake to her house earlier this month.
Her personal physician, Tin Myo Win, was taken from his home by police on May 7, a day after John William Yettaw was arrested near Aung San Suu Kyi’s lakeside residence, where she has been detained for more than 13 of the last 19 years.
Yesterday a family member said the doctor had come home.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 63, was charged on Thursday with violating her house arrest by sheltering Yettaw, reportedly a Vietnam War veteran, who will also be tried along with two female assistants who have been with Aung San Suu Kyi since 2003.
It is not known why Tin Myo Win was arrested. A spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy earlier said the doctor’s detention may have been related to the US man, who has been labeled a “fool” by the pro-democracy movement.
Aung San Suu Kyi had been scheduled to be freed on May 27 after six consecutive years of house arrest, but now faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Her latest arrest has sparked a storm of international appeals to Myanmar’s government to free her and to restore democracy in the country, which has been under military rule since 1962.
In unusually sharp criticism from a Southeast Asian nation, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said yesterday that his government was “deeply troubled and outraged” over “trumped up charges” against Aung San Suu Kyi.
“We urge the government of Myanmar to resolve the matter speedily and to release Aung San Suu Kyi immediately and unconditionally,” he said.
Normally, members of the 10-country ASEAN, which includes Myanmar, refrain from criticizing one another.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Kyi Win, was allowed to meet privately with her on Saturday at Insein prison, where the four are being held.
“Daw Suu [Aung San Suu Kyi] recounted the events from the time that fellow [Yettaw] came into the house and how she had asked him to leave the house,” Kyi Win said yesterday.
“It is very clear that there is no breach of conditions of her restrictions,” the lawyer said.
Kyi Win will be one of several lawyers defending Aung San Suu Kyi.
On Saturday, Aung Thein, a lawyer known for defending political activists, said he was dismissed from the country’s Bar Council after he had applied to represent Aung San Suu Kyi.
Why Yettaw swam across the lake to see Aung San Suu Kyi remains unclear. After leaving, he was fished out of the lake about 2km from her residence and taken into custody.
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